Pence Tells Reporter the Era of Strategic Patience with NK Is Over

During an interview Monday, Vice President Mike Pence laid out President Donald Trump’s plan for tackling the rogue regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and assuming the “crazy fat kid” was paying attention, he ought to be as frightened as a trapped rabbit.

“For more than a quarter of a century, the United States has negotiated, had talks, waited patiently,” he continued. “All the while we’ve seen the regime in North Korea continue its headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons and a ballistic missile program. And the president said that’s over.”

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For starters, the president has been engaging America’s allies in the region “to economically and diplomatically isolate North Korea,” Pence noted, pointing to Trump forcing China to take more concrete steps to contain its unruly neighbor.

“We have word of China turning back coal shipments from North Korea,” he added. “We have word of them beginning to reduce the amount of commercial travel that exists (with) North Korea.”

However, this was still not enough, and the vice president acknowledged this, adding that the president wants U.S. allies to boost their economic and diplomatic pressure on Kim in the hope that such efforts might lead to a permanent termination of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

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Otherwise, if nothing else works, then “all options are on the table,” the vice president cautioned.

“And in (the) actions the world has seen the president take in Syria and Afghanistan, President Trump in a very real way has restored the credibility of American power,” he said. “And they know that we are prepared to defend our allies.”

Instead of sitting back and allowing Kim to continue his pursuit of nuclear weapons, President Trump has drawn a line in the sand and made it clear that before his term ends, the North Korean problem will be resolved in one way or another.

It’s now up to Kim to decide whether he wants to do this the easy way or the hard way.